Chapter 687: Chapter 64 History
On the second night at the Research Institute, just before bed, Miel whimsically summoned the Banshee Queen, asking her to cast a “Thou shalt not be eroded by the Abyss in spirit,” and indeed, everyone’s nightmares were greatly reduced that night.
Minerva’s Curse Ability was truly impressive; it acted as a “curse” against enemies and a “blessing” for her own people. Her words, carrying immediate effects, allowed everyone to barely get a good night’s sleep.
The third morning, Mia woke up early and began practicing the Ripple Sword, constantly teleporting from one end of the room to the other and back again.
Aske stood at the far end of the room. In front of him, a large circle was drawn on the floor. Every time Mia teleported into the circle, he’d take a Conceptual Weapon he had summoned—a large mallet—and swing it waist-high into the circle. Mia had to teleport out before the strike hit her, or she would be hit by the club.
Miel sat on a chair to the side, beginning to observe parallel universes on a large scale, in bulk.
…
The more she observed, the more she felt something was off. This Synthetic Human… seemed to be hiding a lot of things. When Aske tried to pry information, it mostly evaded the truth or responded with vague comments, yet the occasional slip in its answers indicated that it wasn’t just an ordinary Mechanical with no knowledge.
While observing the timelines, she pulled out paper and a pen from the future and quickly recorded a vast amount of results. Then, during a break in Mia’s training, she silently handed the notes to Aske.
Aske took the notes without a word, read them completely, and then put them on the table. On Miel’s side, she removed the summon, directly destroying the evidence cleanly, without leaving a trace.
In the afternoon, the Synthetic Human named Kapei came into the room asking the visitors if they needed anything.
“We’re practicing swordsmanship and would like to use a larger space. Could you provide that for us?” Aske asked.
“A larger space…” Kapei seemed to ponder. “How large do you need?”
“The bigger, the better,” replied Aske.
“Follow me,” Kapei said.
The three followed Kapei out of the room, with Miel silently casting a meaningful glance at Aske.
Aske returned the glance with a significant look of his own.
Mia, walking in the middle, looked at Miel on the left, then at Aske on the right, completely unable to decipher their exchanged glances. She felt too awkward to ask directly and found it rather suffocating.
They arrived at a massive room that appeared to be a testing ground. Kapei turned around and asked,
“Will this do?”
“Yes,” Aske said, looking around. “What is this place?”
“This is where our experiment subjects undergo comprehensive testing,” Kapei replied.
“Experimental creatures?” Miel asked, feigning curiosity.
“The main research topic of our Research Institute is how to enable humans to live in the erosive environments of the three major planes,” Kapei replied. “Due to the sensitive nature, I can’t share specific research details with you at this time.”
“Oh…” Miel drew out her voice, casting another enquiring glance at Aske.
Aske gave an almost imperceptible nod, resting one hand on the Longsword he had pulled from the void.
“Actually, you don’t need to say anything; we can guess,” Miel suddenly said. “To resist the Abyssal erosion, the options are either to develop external equipment or to modify our own genes.”
“Since you mentioned ‘test subjects’ and considering the immense size of the testing grounds, the specific content must be about genetically transforming humans, right? By integrating the genes of extraordinary magical creatures from the Abyss, humans are transformed into giant monsters, thereby gaining the ability to adapt to the environment of the Abyss?”
The red radiance in Kapei’s eyes suddenly started to flicker rapidly, as if a processor was executing computations with a massive amount of data. Aske imperceptibly stepped forward, shielding Miel; Mia, meanwhile, quietly circled around from the side to block the Synthetic Human’s escape.
“Hmm, I had not thought that you could guess it…” It was a few minutes before the Synthetic Human spoke again, but it was not the synthetic mechanical voice, but rather a raspy middle-aged male voice, “You guys… aren’t simple mercenaries, are you?”
“So, I guessed right.” Miel breathed a sigh of relief internally.
Based on her observation of future outcomes, when she mentioned the special information of “genetic modification,” there was a 67% probability that the other party would confess, and a 33% probability that they would turn hostile immediately. Fortunately, it seemed she had won the bet.
“It’s not hard to guess,” Kapei said with a cold laugh. “Abyss Lower Level Number 710 Research Institute, the most infamous human optimization plan in the history of scientific ethics. Even if you are ‘Scientific Research Hunters’ from over 1700 years later, you should have heard of our specific research focus.”
Human optimization? Scientific Research Hunters? Mia was completely baffled listening from the back, while Aske kept his expression unchanged, and Miel slightly peeked at the direction of the future before continuing:
“You misunderstand, we are not the so-called Scientific Research Hunters. Or rather, in 1700 years, ‘science’ is no longer a word deeply ingrained in the hearts of people.”
“What are you talking about?” Kapei’s tone was one of incredulity, as if hearing complete nonsense.
“Alas.” Miel sighed softly and spoke:
“Sir, have you ever heard of the Magic Tide?”
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“Nonsense!” Having listened to Miel’s account of history, the already impatient Kapei burst out in anger, “A planet-level magnetic field fluctuation? Burning out electronic devices? That’s ridiculous! When our fleet colonized this planet, the equipment we carried was equipped with top-tier electromagnetic shielding! Do you think we wouldn’t have considered experimental conditions in a strong magnetic field environment?”
“Regardless of what you believe, the fact is that the first Magic Tide nearly destroyed human technology,” Miel said hauntingly. “Nowadays, most scientific technology has been monopolized by the Church Court of Italy, and it has been packaged as theology, no longer open for exchange with the outside world.”
“That’s absolutely impossible!” Kapei persisted, “When we first landed on this planet, we monitored the atmospheric composition, gravity, soil microbial environment, and electromagnetic field strength, and have never heard of any phenomena of sudden magnetic field increases. The surface magnetic strength hovers at about 0.5-0.6 gauss, which induces currents that are negligible, certainly not enough to burn electronics!”
“Sir Kapei,” Aske interjected, “if it wasn’t for the Magic Tide destroying human technology, then why, in the over 1700 years since this place was abandoned, has there not been a second expedition team to visit here?”
“I…” Kapei was suddenly at a loss for words, “I thought… I thought the Scientific Ethics Committee had banned my research institute…”
He soon became speechless, realizing that even if the institute had been deliberately banned, they would not have left a Research Institute, capable of operating independently and stocked with a wealth of cutting-edge scientific resources, abandoned in the depths of the Abyss for over 1700 years with no one inquiring about it—the only explanation that made sense was as Aske and his companions had said:
The once dazzling human technological civilization, capable of navigating the seas of stars, no longer existed.